The building at the corner of Harrison Street and Lombard Avenue is one of six in the Oak Park Arts District bought by Mona Navitsky and a group of investors. Navitsky is seeking incentives from Cook County to find tenants for two of the buildings.

The building at the corner of Harrison Street and Lombard Avenue is one of six in the Oak Park Arts District bought by Mona Navitsky and a group of investors. Navitsky is seeking incentives from Cook County to find tenants for two of the buildings. (Caitlin Mullen / Pioneer Press)

The Oak Park Village Board announced its support for the owner of several Harrison Street properties to receive property tax incentives from Cook County.

Mona Navitsky, owner of properties at 213-215 and 219-221 Harrison St., is seeking a Class 7(c) incentive from Cook County, which could reduce the assessed values of those properties for up to five years. In order to proceed with her application, Navitsky needed an ordinance of support from the village board.

Navitsky, a partner of Harrison Street Ventures LLC, purchased the buildings in 2015. She said the incentive is needed to get those buildings occupied.

Both 213-215 and 219-221 Harrison St. have been vacant for more than 15 years, and each are more than 6,000 square feet in size, which requires tenants to cover high improvement and occupancy costs, officials said.

According to a letter from Oak Park Economic Development Corporation Executive Director John Lynch, the Class 7(c) incentive allows eligible properties to receive a reduced assessment level of 10 percent of market value, as determined by the Cook County assessor, for the first three years of the program. The incentive includes a 15 percent reduced assessment level in year four and a 20 percent reduction in year five.

"Projections show that the property tax incentive would yield approximately $100,000 in savings for each building over the five-year term of the program," Lynch wrote. "The properties are currently filing tax appeals based on vacancy."

Trustee Dan Moroney expressed his concerns over the request and what the future could hold for those properties after the incentives expire.

"I'm wondering if there's been a thought of trying to rent those properties at a lower rate," Moroney said. "I'm skeptical about the long-term viability of these particular properties. Given that I feel there hasn't been an aggressive approach, in my opinion, to fill the spaces, after those five years when the tax burden goes back to market rate without the incentive, what happens then? This incentive just delays the inevitable of these properties being more and more unviable. How do we get these properties developed into something more viable?"

According to Navitsky, she is considering offering the properties at a lower rate and is planning about $900,000 in upgrades to the buildings, but she still needs the incentive.

"The only way of making that possible is having the incentives in place," Navitsky said. "We don't believe redevelopment into any kind of residential component is viable. We've been in preliminary discussions with restaurants and brewpubs, because they're more conducive to the long and narrow shape of the buildings."

Trustees approved a resolution of support for Navitsky's application by a 6-1 vote, with Moroney voting no.

According to Mayor Anan Abu-Taleb, the owner of the 259 Lake St. building, now Pete's Fresh Market, applied for similar tax relief when Dominick's closed.

"Their property tax went down by two-thirds, and we lost all the sales tax generated by Dominick's," Abu-Taleb said. "When we look at vacant stores, if there's a way we can have the lights turned on by someone and have then generate vitality and economic opportunity, I think it's a direction we should [pursue] as often as we can."

The buildings, long owned by the Kleronomos family, had been in foreclosure since 2011 prior to the purchase by Harrison Street Ventures.